The Butterfly Effect
by essarg
Summary: Harry goes to the Burrow just after his birthday as he turns fourteen. There he sees Ginny Weasley flying in the late night sky and he is intrigued. A friendship is born, and the events that follow quite change the outcome as we know happens in Canon.
1. The Scar

Disclaimer: None of this is mine; I'm just meddling a bit with JKR's world is all! Please don't sue me:)

AN : Not the most original one of those out there I know. But this has been bugging me relentless until i did something about it. My first attempt at fanfic, so...

**CHAPTER ONE**

**THE SCAR**

Harry lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin.

He sat up, one hand still on his scar, the other hand reaching out in the darkness for his glasses, which were besides his pillow. He put them on and the bedroom he was in currently came into clearer focus, lit by the moon light that was filtering through the tiny window. The moon still looked almost full now, and he was suddenly reminded of Remus Lupin. He wondered for a second how his old professor was doing then, with no one to keep him company this time, did he even have access to his potion this time, that he was no longer at Hogwarts?

Harry ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. He quickly scrambled out of his cot, tiptoed across the small room, weaving his way through the four beds quietly so that none of those sleeping awoke, ducked to avoid hitting the sloping ceiling, opened the door and peered outside to see if anyone was still awake. Quietly as possible, he made his way down the rickety stairs towards the kitchen for a glass of water. One of the loose stairs at the first floor landing creaked a bit and Harry froze hoping he had not awakened the occupant across the door at this landing. With no such indication, he made it to the kitchen even more quietly than before, found a glass, filled it with water at the sink and drank greedily. After another glass of water, feeling satisfied, he turned and caught sight of himself in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece. The moonlight coming through the window in the kitchen was enough to show him a skinny boy of fourteen looking back at him, his bright green eyes puzzled under his untidy black hair. He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.

Harry tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he had awoken. It had seemed so real…There had been two people he knew and one he didn't…He concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember…The dim picture of a darkened room came to him…There had been a snake on a hearth rug…a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail…and a cold, high voice…the voice of Lord Voldemort. Harry felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into his stomach at the very thought…

He closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember what Voldemort had looked like, but it was impossible…All Harry knew was that at the moment when Voldemort's chair had swung around, and he, Harry, had seen what was sitting in it, he had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken him…or had that been the pain in his scar?

And who had the old man been? For there had definitely been an old man; Harry had watched him fall to the ground. It was all becoming confused. Harry put his face into his hands, blocking out the kitchen, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in his cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as he tried to hold on to them…Voldemort and Wormtail had been talking about someone they had killed, though Harry could not remember the name…and they had been plotting to kill someone else…him!

Harry took his face out of his hands, opened his eyes, and stared around the kitchen as though expecting to see something unusual there. As it happened, he caught sight of an extraordinary thing through the kitchen window. A strange silhouetted shape was moving in the moonlit sky at amazing speeds, almost as if there was someone out there flying in the sky on a broom or something. The moon suddenly shone out from behind the sparse clouds it had been covered by briefly, and he caught sight of the moon light reflecting off the figure's red hair. It was a mesmerizing sight, he had to admit, the way the person's long hair, some escaping from the long pony tail it was tied in, glistened and sparkled in the moonlight when it bounced off of it. He suddenly had a sneaking suspicion who exactly it was out there, for no other person he knew had long hair of that shade of red, and considering the size of the said person in question, there was little doubt in his mind about the identity of the person anymore. He stood there astonished for a few moments, almost gaping incredulously, and then smacked his forehead for his stupidity.

Of course, she would be flying out there all she wanted, she must be used to this routine. But the way she was flying right then with such an easy grace and fluidity, very much lacking in her brothers, she must have been doing this for years! And then a small part of his brain questioned why none of her brothers had ever even mentioned in passing about her skill. Of course, there was no reason for them to tell him about it specifically, but why then they never even invited her to play along with them? Suddenly, he had a very good idea why, they themselves must not know anything about this. Yes, that must be it! For what other reason did she have to go sneaking behind everyone's back, to just fly in the middle of the night then?

Harry Potter was intrigued and by now very much curious about Ginny Weasley, for it was she who was out there still, while he was gazing at her flying around in the night sky, face pressed to the glass pane of the kitchen window he had no recollection of when he had moved forward to so closer. His decision made he quickly snapped out of his reverie, and slipped quietly through the kitchen door towards the back garden, and towards the orchard, where Ginny was currently. Finding a place to sit down, he carried on watching her with admiration and respect in his eyes. After a while, he slipped back into his reflections, though his thoughts were now on the littlest Weasley and how little he knew about her then. He had been to the burrow before only once after his first year at Hogwarts and the month he had spent here had some of the best moments in his short life of fourteen years. Back then, Ginny had been awfully shy and quiet when in his presence, he remembered. Always blushing and stammering and knocking things about when he was around, he had always found it a bit awkward then. Then the business with Tom Riddle's diary had happened and Ginny and he had almost died at the end of his second year at Hogwarts in the Chamber of Secrets. But Fawkes had come to their help and saved them both and everything was right in the end. But after that he had not had many opportunities to speak with her, nor did he make any overtures to get to know her better after that incident. Although, when a seemingly mad man, arrested for murdering thirteen people in one stroke, has escaped from the most heavily guarded prison known to wizards, just to kill you personally, and that said mad man was your supposed God-Father, he thought he could be excused for being a bit pre-occupied in his own problems last year more than usual.

But now he knew the truth was not what it seemed, his godfather Sirius Black was actually innocent of all crimes for which he was arrested for, instead it was Peter Pettigrew aka Wormtail, the traitor, who was responsible for murdering twelve muggles and blaming it on Sirius. He was the one responsible for the death of Harry's parents, selling their information to Lord Voldemort by giving away the secret to where they were hiding. Voldemort had killed both of his parents on Halloween almost thirteen years ago, tried to kill Harry too, but the curse had backfired upon him due to his mother's sacrifice for Harry, leaving Voldemort without a body until now and Harry had gotten this scar which was still tingling a bit with the residual pain from where it had awoken him earlier. With a jolt he remembered, why he was feeling so restless until Ginny had distracted him. It was Wormtail again who had somehow found Voldemort and they were both plotting to murder him! What was worse, they had already killed someone else tonight, for it was the green light of the Avada Kedavra curse that had been one of the two things which had finally woken him from that dream he was having…Hang on, dream? Was that really a dream or not? It had felt so real back then, but he was not sure how he was able to even see what he had seen, or whose point of view he had seen it from, even if it was real. It was all so confusing and frustrating to him; his scar had only bothered him before when Voldemort was close by, like back in his first year.

But Voldemort couldn't be here, now…The idea of Voldemort lurking near the Burrrow was absurd, improbable…But was it really impossible?

Harry listened closely to the silence around him. Was he half expecting to hear the snap of a twig or the swish of a cloak and impending footsteps? And then he jumped slightly as he heard Ginny give a slight shriek of triumph as she pulled out of a dive and made another loop around the area. She still hadn't noticed him sitting there in plain sight in the little pathway which led to the front of the kitchen door, so caught up she was in her excitement and thrill.

Harry shook himself mentally; he was being stupid. The Burrow had upon it impressive wards put upon by Bill Weasley, the eldest of the Weasley brothers, who was a curse breaker at Gringotts, the goblin controlled wizard's bank. His head master Albus Dumbledore too had come by in the afternoon on the second day after his arrival at the Burrow, and added a few of his own wards to make it even safer. The day before that, Harry had even had the first birthday party he ever remembered, well a belated birthday party rather, as it was a day later when the Weasleys had come to Privet Drive to take him away to the Burrow. And what an eventful incident that had been! Fred and George had come along with Ron and their father, Arthur Weasley and they had arrived in the Dursley's living room literally with a _BANG! _The twins had dropped one of their sweets, accidentally of course, for Dudley to see it plainly and be tempted by it. He had been on a diet whole summer, and Harry and remaining Dursleys had to go along with the meager proportions of food for lunch and dinner until then to provide encouragement to him. While Mr. Weasley was busy fixing the broken furniture and such in the living room, Dudley had given in to the temptation and picked up the sweet and quickly gobbled it up. Alas, the result was quite amusing and horrifying at the same moment. Amusing for Harry and the Weasley boys that is, but horrifying for everyone else. Uncle Vernon had exploded, Aunt Petunia had shrieked and screeched, Dudley had gagged upon his foot long tongue and Mr. Weasley had tried in vain to pacify everyone while at the same time attempting to rectify the situation. After everyone had arrived at the Burrow, they had all laughed heartily along with Bill, Charlie and Ginny until Mr. Weasley had come home and shouted at the twins. Their mother, Molly Weasley had heard the commotion from inside the kitchen and laid it upon the twins with a heavy dose of shouting. Sometimes he thought he could still hear his ears ringing if he concentrated a bit!

He had met Charlie and Bill then, whom he could only describe as cool. They were both pleased to meet him and Harry found himself quickly warming up to them - as if anyone with the surname Weasley would be ever unpleasant to him! Even Percy Weasley, who had passed his NEWTS last year and had joined the Department of Magical Co-operation at the Ministry of Magic under Bartemius Crouch, was always pleasant to him, though he came off a bit pompous at times to everybody. Mrs. Weasley had asked him about his birthday from day before, and the look on his face must have been a dead give-away, for everyone present had fallen silent at that. She had decidedly determined to hold an impromptu birthday celebration for him that day in the evening and Harry had reddened embarrassingly trying to tell her there was no need to.

"Nonsense, Harry dear! We would love to give you a proper birthday party", she had said. And a party he did have, for Mrs. Weasley had baked an amazing cake for the occasion along with all of his favorites for supper that night. He had gotten quite a few presents from them all; Ron and Ginny had got him a few Chocolate Frogs along with birthday cards, the twins had given him some assorted candies, Percy had given him his old guide book for prefects, even Bill and Charlie had given him something from their old stashes. Hermione's food parcel had arrived shortly thereafter along with her birthday card, the owl had first gone to Privet Drive it seems and upon not finding him there tracked him down to the Burrow.

That was a couple of days ago and he had quickly got used to the life at the Burrow thereafter. De-gnoming the garden, playing Quidditch with Ron and the twins with an apple or swimming at the pond in the mornings (the twins had taken it quite seriously upon themselves to teach him swimming when he had told them about his lack of experience); and when it was too hot outside or they were feeling too lazy for anything else, he would play chess or gob-stones or exploding snap with Ron and others who were there. Ginny would join them during such times and he had caught her blushing a few times when he spoke to her directly, but she did have conversations with him at a stretch now - that was quite an improvement from two summers before.

A startled gasp brought him out of his musings, only to find that Ginny had decided to end her night time flying, and was on her way towards the broom shed and had decided to go back up to sleep.

He quickly stood up and took in her rosy-cheeked appearance before speaking teasingly, "Quite late for a bit of a fly, isn't it Miss Weasley?"

Ginny was clutching her heart looking at him shocked that he had caught her.

Speechless for a moment she observed him standing coolly as ever in her path, smirking at her and teasing her!

"What the hell are you doing here so late in the night?" she all but shouted at him.

"Wow! Do you want to wake up everyone else, Ginny? I knew your brothers were a bad influence on you, already swearing you are!" he added quite amused now.

He could see her cheeks pinking even more at that, but she jutted her chin out and whispered, "I didn't notice anyone else out . I couldn't sleep and flying helps me take my mind off a few things I would otherwise worry about. So I go for a late night fly at such times." She narrowed her eyes at him then and asked again, "What were _you_ doing out here so late?"

Harry avoided her eyes and looked about. Everything was peaceful out here at the moment, the moon shone brightly in the night sky; the trees in the distance were swaying and the leaves rustling along with the wind. Suddenly he felt a bit chilly and rubbing his arms turned to Ginny again. She was waiting for his answer expectantly. He didn't know what to tell her. He was not sure himself why he had waited here watching her fly, instead of going back up to sleep after he found out the identity of the mysterious late-night flyer. Of course, he had ended up reminiscing instead, but this was the first opportunity he had got to be alone for a while and think to himself and he had missed that at the Burrow.

He said the first thing that came to his mind, "You are a brilliant flier Ginny! Amazing! You should be on the Quidditch team!" He was practically gushing now. Ginny's cheeks flushed again as he praised her so and her eyes sparkled brightly, "Thanks Harry! I'm not sure about the Quidditch comment you made, but you didn't answer my question. Don't tell me you were spying on me to scout my Quidditch skills for this year's team", she finished quite dryly.

"Err, no…Not that, I mean, of course I wasn't spying", he stammered a bit.

"I'm sorry if I startled you before, I woke up due to a dream and came down for a glass of water and saw someone flying in the distance on a broom, figured it was you and came to investigate. Then I saw the way you were flying and was watching you fly, but then I got caught up with my thoughts until you came here," he finished apologetically.

Ginny had sat down and made herself comfortable by then and he did the same.

"Is that why you are looking a bit peaky?" she asked leaning forward to look him into the face clearly and almost reached out her hand to touch his scar, before she caught herself and sat back again. "Your face is still pale and your scar is red too, was it a nightmare you had?" she finished quietly.

Harry could see the concern in her brown eyes quite clearly and balked for a few seconds deciding how to reply.

He could tell her it was just a silly dream and not to worry, but the concern he saw in her eyes seemed so genuine and he so desperately wanted to figure out what was happening – he knew he had to tell someone, but whom? He wondered for a moment what his best friends would say to him if he mentioned this to them?

At once, Hermione Granger's voice seemed to fill his head, shrill and panicky.

"Your scar hurt? Harry, that's really serious…Write to Professor Dumbledore! And I'll go and check Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions…Maybe there's something in there about curse scars…"

Yes, that would be Hermione's advice: Go straight to the headmaster of Hogwarts, and in the meantime, consult a book. Harry stared upwards at the moon. He doubted very much whether a book could help him now. As far as he knew, he was the only living person to have survived a curse like Voldemort's; it was highly unlikely, therefore, that he would find his symptoms listed in Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions. As for informing the headmaster, Harry had no idea where Dumbledore went during the summer holidays. He amused himself for a moment, picturing Dumbledore, with his long silver beard, full length wizard's robes, and pointed hat, stretched out on a beach somewhere, rubbing suntan lotion onto his long crooked nose. Wherever Dumbledore was, though, Harry was sure that Hedwig would be able to find him; Harry's owl had never yet failed to deliver a letter to anyone, even without an address. But what would he write?

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,  
Sorry to bother you, but my scar hurt this morning.  
__Yours sincerely,  
Harry Potter._

Even inside his head the words sounded stupid.

And so he tried to imagine his other best friend, Ron Weasley's, reaction, and in a moment, Ron's red hair and long-nosed, freckled face seemed to swim before Harry, wearing a bemused expression.

"Your scar hurt? But…but You-Know-Who can't be near you now, can he? I mean…you'd know, wouldn't you? He'd be trying to do you in again, wouldn't he? I dunno, Harry, maybe curse scars always twinge a bit…I'll ask Dad…"

Mr. Weasley was a fully qualified wizard who worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, but he didn't have any particular expertise in the matter of curses, as far as Harry knew. In any case, Harry didn't like the idea of the whole Weasley family knowing that he, Harry, was getting jumpy about a few moments' pain. Mrs. Weasley would fuss worse than Hermione; and Fred and George, Ron's sixteen- year-old twin brothers, might think Harry was losing his nerve.

But it was not Ron who had found him here after he woke up from the nightmare or dream whatever it was. It was Ginny Weasley, his younger sister. And he didn't quite know how she would react if he told her his scar hurt. A sound like slight clearing of throat brought him back to the present. Ginny was still waiting patiently and looking at him with more than slight concern now. With a sigh he said, "Nothing Ginny, It was nothing serious." She obviously wasn't buying it judging by the expression on her face.

"Please Harry, do I look stupid? You spaced out a lot over there for it to be '_nothing'_. Was it...was it about Black?" she asked hesitatingly.

"NO!" his head swirled towards her at that, and he all but snarled at her.

Taking a deep breath, he calmly said "It was not about Sirius, it…well, I had a weird dream and when I woke up, my scar was hurting like hell. It's not about Si...Sirius at all", his breath caught in his throat while thinking about Sirius and how he must be doing. He hoped he was okay and healthy, well, as healthy you could be, while being on the run from the law. Ginny was looking quite confused now. "Your scar hurt? Does that happen normally after you have had a nightmare?"

"Not actually, no. It only acts up when I am near Voldemort you see", he said quietly looking down. Hearing her gasp, he looked up again, but could not know if she was startled due to what he said or because he had said Voldemort's name.

She looked around for a few seconds and then back at him again, "He can't be near by. Not for quite a few miles, Bill and Dumbledore put up wards remember?"

"Yeah, that's what got me flummoxed, you see! My scar has never hurt this way before!"

She stayed silent for a while before asking, "What did you see in your dream? Maybe that will give us some clue then?"

Now that he had told her about it, he too started thinking back on his dream. But could he tell her about it? What if she panicked? Besides she didn't even know about Pettigrew and last year. Only his two friends, Remus Lupin and Dumbledore knew the truth about Sirius' innocence besides him. Could he trust her with this? He decided not to. He couldn't take any chance with Sirius' safety.

"Its okay Ginny, leave it be. You need not worry. I don't think it's important. We should go to sleep, it's pretty late." With that he got up and started to turn around, but a small, firm hand on his arm stopped him.

"Harry, it's not nothing! You said yourself your scar has never hurt this way before. Look, if you are just saying that because you don't want to tell _me_, fine. I've no problem with that, but at least promise me you'll speak with Mum or Dad tomorrow? "Harry remained quiet at that, he was pretty sure he was not going to tell them about his scar hurting. He didn't want his stay at the Burrow punctuated with anxious inquiries about his scar.

"You don't have to worry about me tattling about it, if you don't want to tell them. At least you can trust me on that," she said a bit mulishly.  
"I just wanted to help you Harry, if you would let me…"

He looked at her then and saw her eyes imploring at him, willing him to believe her, trust her to let her help him, however she could.

It was as if he was looking at her for the first time. He could see her deep chocolate brown eyes clear in the moon light which caused her long lustrous red hair to shine and glint when the moon shone on them. She still held her hand on his arm; there was very little distance between them as they stood apart.

There was a swooning sensation in his stomach all of a sudden and he felt funny.

Turning a bit, he looked around confused at a loss what to do. With a sigh, he looked back at her again and sat down motioning her to do the same.

It was going to be a long night, he thought.

Ginny was a pretty good listener, he thought as he finished his tale. She was looking quite amazed and astonished at him. He couldn't really blame her for that. The whole thing when told from a third person's point of view appeared so far-fetched and unbelievable, he himself at times had trouble wrapping around the fact; how in a span of few hours he had gone from being only a burden to his only remaining relatives to having a god-father with a chance to permanently leave the Dursleys and move in with Sirius. All those plans had been scuppered though when Wormtail had escaped before they could take him to the Ministry of Magic, and Sirius had had to flee for his life. Harry had helped him escape on the back of a hippogriff called Buckbeak, and since then, Sirius had been on the run. The home Harry might have had if Wormtail had not escaped had been haunting him all summer. It had been doubly hard to return to the Dursleys knowing that he had so nearly escaped them forever.

Nevertheless, Sirius had been of some help to Harry, even if he couldn't be with him. It was due to Sirius that Harry had had all his school things in his bedroom with him while at the Dursleys. The Dursleys had never allowed that before; their general wish of keeping Harry as miserable as possible, coupled with their fear of his powers, had led them to lock his school trunk in the cupboard under the stairs every summer prior to this. But their attitude had changed since they had found out that Harry had a dangerous murderer for a godfather - for Harry had conveniently forgotten to tell them that Sirius was innocent.

Harry had received two letters from Sirius while he had been back at Privet Drive. Both had been delivered, not by owls (as was usual with wizards), but by large, brightly colored tropical birds. Hedwig had not approved of these flashy intruders; she had been most reluctant to allow them to drink from her water tray before flying off again. Harry, on the other hand, had liked them; they put him in mind of palm trees and white sand, and he hoped that, wherever Sirius was (Sirius never said, in case the letters were intercepted), he was enjoying himself. Somehow, Harry found it hard to imaging dementors surviving for long in bright sunlight. perhaps that was why Sirius had gone south. Sirius's letters sounded cheerful, and in both of them he had reminded Harry to call on him if ever Harry needed to.

He was thinking about writing him a letter then, asking his advice on the matter because he could call on Sirius without feeling stupid, for he had had experience with Dark Magic and cared about him unconditionally…

All this while Ginny hadn't said a thing and he was waiting for her reaction anxiously, hoping he had not made a mistake in telling her everything.  
When she finally looked at him, he found her smiling at him shakily and a bit uneasily. "You never quite catch a break, do you Harry?"  
He could only snort at that.

"You know, as unbelievable and cock-and-bull this sounds, I don't think after the Chamber incident anything could really surprise me anymore," she added staring off into space. It was his turn now to put his hand around her arm and bring her back to the present. Squeezing it a bit, he said, "That brings me to my dream then. It all felt so real and chilly. I don't understand half of it frankly speaking." With that he recounted his dream to her with as many details as he could remember. At the end of which, Ginny looked quite pale and shaken herself. Aghast, she could only say, "Can't he just die and leave you in peace? Why couldn't he have stayed dead when you defeated him when you were a baby? Don't you deserve to have at least one school year where you don't have to look over at your shoulders every now and then?"

Surprised at her outburst, he squeezed her arm once more saying, "Well then my life wouldn't be half as interesting anymore, would it?" She gave a weak snort at that and Harry was relieved she did not blow her top like Hermione would at him making such a joke. _"That's not funny, Harry!"_ He could almost hear her shrill voice screeching in the back of his mind.

"Are you going to tell Professor Dumbledore about this?"

"And what would I write to him if I did? My scar hurt this morning and I saw Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to do me in? That's no big news to him ever since Trelawney made that prophecy last year!"

"Well, next time you se him, I think you should at least tell him your scar hurt when you saw this dream, he is probably the only one who can tell you the reason for this. We don't even know if this has already happened or it was some kind of a future vision. I sincerely doubt your subconscious being as imaginative and creative as is required to simply make up this whole dream."

Harry smiled at that, "Yeah, definitely not my imagination then."

He paused for a while thinking what to do.

"I guess I should write a letter to Dumbledore. I shall write one to Sirius too."

"Yeah, you do that," she smiled encouragingly at him.

"Thanks Gin. Thanks a lot! You have been a great help. I'm glad I decided to trust you with this. You are an amazingly kind and caring friend. Though I never gave you any time of my day last year, you still are helping me –"

"Harry," she interrupted, "you had a lot going on last year to worry about giving me any _'time of your day.'_ Don't beat yourself up on that, I'm just glad that we could be friends anyways and I was able to help. Though I don't see what help I've been, but still – "

"But you have! You know, just listening to me and well...taking me seriously, and... all of this helped a lot, Gin" he finished earnestly waving his hands around.

Ginny smiled brightly at him at that and got up, offering him a hand to pull him up too. Seeing her smile brightly at him this way, Harry once again felt a flutter in his stomach, but took her hand and stood up anyway. Together, they made their way to the garden outside the Burow's kitchen and went inside through the kitchen door, locked it and made their way upstairs silently. Parting at her bedroom and wishing each other good night, Harry made his way to Ron's bedroom quite eager to sleep for a few hours, his mind now at peace after his talk with Ginny. He decided to write both the letters in the morning after he woke up.


	2. Life At The Burrow

**_AN:_**_ Again I'm just tweaking JKR's world for my own pleasures, none of which are monetary._

_A big thanks to all the people who have reviewed, Pooky333 deserves a special one for being the first ;)_

_I am actually writing this story as a means to give me a feel for writing, for I have another plot swimming in my mind which would be a rather audacious venture on my part, if and when I decide to flesh it out into a story. It's another AU situation and I believe is a unique way of handling the Slytherin Harry world that I haven't seen done before (At least not where Ginny is the central character). I didn't want it to be sub standard, so I decided to tackle this one first._

_A few sentences are taken directly from the 'Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire', but I have used it to blend and connect a few scenes in this chapter that I found difficult to do otherwise. I am not quite happy with this chapter, but it has given me a new level of appreciation towards the great authors out here who churn out regular 10000 words chapters on bi-weekly or even a weekly basis. I will try to post a new chapter every ten days or so._

**CHAPTER TWO**

**LIFE AT THE BURROW**

Harry woke up the next day blearily rubbing the sleep out of his eyes to find Ron shaking him roughly to wake him up.

"Blimey mate! Looks like you had a good sleep last night, Mum decided to let you have a sleep-in today. Seems to have done the trick too. Don't think you must have got a chance at the Muggles, eh?"

Harry just smiled at him in answer and roused himself up fully, changing out of his night clothes and replied, "Thanks for waking me up, mate. Guess I needed my beauty sleep today, eh? Go ahead; I'll be downstairs in a few minutes after washing up a bit. Is there any breakfast left for me?"

"Of course mate, you think Mum will let go of a chance to feed you and fatten you up a bit?" Ron replied laughingly.

"Yeah, well. See you in a bit."

"Hurry up and come downstairs. We are going to play some Quidditch, soon!"

With that Ron turned excitedly and thundered downstairs in a hurry to find the twins.

Harry quickly gathered up his things, made his way to the bathroom downstairs and headed to the kitchen after washing up. He saw Mrs. Weasley had left a plate full of bacon and eggs along with some sandwiches, kept warm for him with a spell, at the table. Sitting there with her back to him was Ginny, who seemed to be nursing a glass of Pumpkin Juice. Not wanting to startle her again, he made some noise to alert her of his presence beforehand as he sauntered into the kitchen and sat across from her, helping himself with his breakfast and poured a glass of pumpkin juice for himself. Looking up at her, he greeted her Good Morning with a bright smile, watching her do the same and return the greeting.

"So, no need to ask if you slept well last night, you seem pretty chipper this morning."

Chuckling lightly, he agreed and added, "Did you get to sleep in too? After all, we both were up until pretty late last night."

She sighed a bit at that, "Nah, no sleep-ins for poor little me. Mum has no idea about my late night flying jaunts, and I would like to keep it that way for now. So no, I woke up pretty soon after Mum called me down for break fast, and have been up since."

"Bet the food couldn't keep you from being up any longer, anyways", he teased.

"Ha-ha, do you take me for my brothers, Harry?"

"Oh, I don't know, you are a Weasley after all! And last night's activities should have left you quite hungry in the morning after all."

She giggled merrily at that and said, "You caught me! Nothing can keep a Weasley from a sumptuous breakfast. Nope, nothing at all!"

They both had a good laugh at that and Harry settled down and started making a dent in his breakfast at a sedate pace.

"So," he asked after washing down the eggs with some juice, "we are going to play some Quidditch after I finish up breakfast, me, Ron and the twins. Care to join us, then?"

"Merlin, no!" She started shaking her head at that, "those gits that call me their sister, wouldtnever let me be on a broomstick if they had their way, much less let me join them in playing Quidditch. Besides, they have no idea if I can fly at all, much less play Chaser with them", she finished a bit darkly.

Having thus confirmed his suspicion about her brothers' knowledge about Ginny's flying skills, Harry pondered for a bit as he put a piece of bacon in his mouth. Swallowing the remaining bacon and a sip of juice later, he asked her out of curiosity, "You are an amazing flyer, Ginny. I was not lying yesterday when I said that. You must have had quite a lot of practice for that. Since when did you start flying? And you must be pretty sneaky to keep this a secret until now from the entire family." He couldn't help teasing her a bit still.

Ginny blushed a little at his praising of her flying skill, but scowled at him at the last part. "Well, I have been breaking into the broom-shed into the night to teach myself flying since I was six, taking turns on each of my brothers' brooms In the orchard out there. They think I can't handle myself, but I have taught them a thing or two since then and they know now to take me seriously. And yes, when you grow up in a house with six older brothers; add the twin prats to the mix, you _have_ to be a bit sneaky to get one up against them," she finished matter-of-factly.

Harry was now chuckling appreciatively at her comments regarding her older brothers and couldn't but help add his two knuts. "You know, my situation with my cousin Dudley, isn't exactly the same, but I know a thing or two about needing to be sneaky, to get past older vexing relatives." She smiled at that and added ruefully, "Yeah, you would."  
They chatted for a little while longer abuot other things and settled into a companionable silence.

Harry continued after a short while, "You know, since your brothers have a pretty fair idea now that you handle yourself against them seriously, asserting your right to fly outside when you want, wouldn't be a bad idea. And it would have the added bonus of me getting to watch their gob smacked faces when they see you flying. I will even offer you a go on my broom to start off. Whaddaya say, Ginny?"

She looked a bit startled at this offer and sat there contemplating a bit, "I don't know Harry. It's just that I know what their response will be when I come out to play with them, and if I make a fool out of myself, they will never let me live it down. Plus, I don't think Mum will be too pleased at her _only baby daughter _taking a liking to such a dangerous sport as Quidditch," she looked down gloomily at her now empty glass of pumpkin juice.  
Harry began exasperatedly, "Come on, Ginny! I am telling you, you are a brilliant flyer and will definitely out class any of your brothers in that department. As for your Mum, didn't she go to the village to buy some groceries? Besides, it's not like we have any bludgers out there, do we?"

Then he leaned over the table towards her and added smirking, "So, think you will be able to match _me_ in the air? I will even let you have a go at the Firebolt, while I take one of the slower brooms and we will play a game of 'Follow the Leader'. What do you say?"

Ginny stood up at that and jutted out her chin at him. Striking a dramatic pose at him, she said haughtily, "You're on, Potter!" With that she took her glass up to the sink and dropped it in, turned without a word to him, swaggering out the kitchen door, holding herself up like a queen all the time.

Harry shook his head, all the while laughing at her antics, and followed her after dropping his dish and glass in the sink. He never knew talking to Ginny would be so easy and fun. He couldn't hold in his glee at the thought of Ron's and the twins' reactions at her revelation. It was going to be an interesting few days at the Burrow for sure. He could feel his insides warm at the thought of getting to know Ginny more personally. He could see a budding friendship with the youngest Weasley at the horizon as he reached the paddock outside the Burrow where she was waiting for him by his Firebolt, which Ron had already got out for him, her brothers waiting with their brooms ready for him to join them.

Dinner that evening was a boisterous affair at the Weasleys with the twins going gaga over their little sister's brilliant flying skills and wonderment by everyone in general over when she learnt to fly like that. Ginny of course was quick to credit Madam Hooch, their flying instructor at Hogwarts, with all the sincerity and gratitude she could muster in her innocent voice, adding little embellishments about her constant encouragements to Ginny when she spotted another natural and talented witch on a broom in her flying lessons. When she winked at Harry while saying the last part, he couldn't help the snort that escaped his nose and ended up inhaling quite a bit of pumpkin juice instead. While recovering from his coughing spell, he marveled at her ability to lie to her Mum straight-faced and couldn't help shaking his head at how gullible Mrs. Weasley was being when it came to her only and youngest daughter. Bill and Charlie were chuckling at the twins' antics, who were busy describing the morning past in great details, while eyeing their little sister with a healthy respect mixed with pride at her achievements. The twins were currently explaining about the great acrobatic skills she had displayed while following Harry's actions in their little game of 'Follow the Leader'. Percy was looking confused, unable to decide if to be miffed at Ginny for hogging away all the limelight at dinner conversation from the account of his day's work or to be proud at his younger sister for being such a natural flyer that Madam Hooch herself gave her permission in her first year to use the Quidditch Pitch to hone her talents. Ron at his side was still looking shell shocked at this morning's revelations, as if a troll had clubbed him on his head. Mr. Weasley looked on proudly beaming at his only daughter while Ginny was basking in the glory at being the center of attention at the dinner table for something she had achieved on her own talents and skill. She caught his eye and beamed at him mouthing silently, '_thank you_', in her gratitude. He simply nodded grinning at her in return, bumping her ankles with his feet under the table and watched a small blush creep under her neck at that.

After everyone had retired inside to the living room, he could see her looking up periodically at him from where she sat doing her summer homework across the room. When he caught her eyes, he could see their chocolate brown hue sparkling with happiness at him and he couldn't stop grinning at her in return. Ron was busy finishing up his Potions essay looking up facts from Harry's; he had finished with most of his own summer assignments quite early this summer while at the Dursleys. That night as they made their way upstairs to their respective bedrooms, he bade her goodnight softly at the first floor and made his way upstairs following Ron and the twins. He wished he had got a chance to talk to her privately after dinner, as he went to sleep. That night, he dreamed of flying in the night sky alongside Ginny, laughing and shrieking in delight with excitement at their adventure.

His dream about Voldemort and the letter to Sirius were far from his mind for the next few days. True to her word, Ginny hadn't pestered him to tell her parents about his scar hurting, but he told her about his letter to Sirius anyways. She had smiled at him at that and told him Sirius was a good choice and left it at that.

Harry sought out Ginny more and more in their daily activities over the next few days and she even sat with them in the evenings, accompanying Ron and Harry where they were giving finishing touches to their remaining essays. Once, Ginny asked their help for her own DADA essay, and Harry could see from the quality of her work, she had very little need for help in her other essays. That is to say, she was far better at Potions or Herbology than he ever was in his second year. When he asked her about her electives for next year, he was glad she was taking Muggle Studies and not Divination as he had, and told her so, citing his experiences with Trelawney from last year. She grinned at that and told him, almost everyone in Gryffindor knew of those experiences, thanks to Lavender and Parvati.

Ginny's birthday was coming up this Sunday and he had no idea what to give her as a gift. Nor had he any chance to go anywhere this summer to buy her a present yet. Saturday morning he found her sitting alone by the pond under the shady trees. Ron and the twins were off to the village for some chore set by Mrs. Weasley, and he had begged off accompanying them, looking forward to a private talk with Ginny instead. He broached the topic and asked her what she would like for a birthday gift. She looked funnily at him for a few moments and then shaking her head, told him there was no need to get her any fancy present, after all hadn't she and Ron given him just Chocolate Frogs for _his_ birthday?

But Harry wouldn't relent and promised her that he would think of an appropriate gift and buy it when they went to Diagon Alley during the next few weeks. They sat there until lunch time talking for a long time about this and that, laughing and joking, teasing each other occasionally. Harry was enjoying her company too much to notice the shadow beside him, and jumped when Bill cleared his throat to call their attention to him.

Bill was looking at him speculatively as he addressed both of them, "Lunch is ready, Mum's calling you both to hurry." As they got up and started back towards the Burrow, Harry could feel Bill's eyes following him closely and he had a vaguely unsettling thought as to his peculiar behaviour today.  
The thought never crossed his mind that Bill's unusual behavior might be due to that he was still holding Ginny's hand all the way until they reached the Burrow's kitchen door.

Sunday evening during her birthday party, Harry gave Ginny a box of several of Honeydukes' Best Chocolates which he had owl-ordered using Hermes, Percy's owl. "Can't go wrong with the chocolates, yeah? I can show you where to get them in Hogsmeade once school starts and we have our first Hogsmeade weekend, if you would like."

Ginny grinned at him saying, "Thanks Harry. I might just take you up on that offer, mind you."

"Sure," he handed her the handmade Birthday Greeting Card he had made and winked saying, "The card doesn't sing yet. Maybe I'll charm it to do so, once we are at Hogwarts."

Ginny reddened at the reference to her last year's get-well singing card to Harry and hit him on his shoulder, "Git!"

Harry rubbed his shoulder exaggeratingly where she hit him, "Oww!"

"Be careful Harry." Fred shot him a theatrical sympathetic look and advised, "Do not make her mad at you. This little minx packs a mean Bat-Bogey Hex. Don't go by her size, that's no indication of her power!" he finished solemnly with a hand across his heart. Ginny rounded on her brothers and finished the little byplay with a rejoinder of her own - "And don't you dare forget that!"

After the Birthday dinner was over, they all sat in the living room where Ginny was still going over her presents from her family while munching on a piece of chocolate bar from Harry's gift. Harry just sat back on the floor near the couch watching Ginny from across the room with a smile on his face, as he was most wont to do these days. He didn't know why, nor did he dwelled on it too much, but whenever he saw Ginny happy and smiling these days, he could feel himself doing the same too and enjoyed the content feeling which passed over him as a result of being in the warm and joyous environment at the Burrow; more and more of these feelings now a days were coming when Ginny was around.

So engrossed was he in his new activity of Ginny-watching, he didn't see Bill motioning Charlie to him and whispering something in his ear. Nor did he notice the continuing speculative looks by Bill or the slightest of scowls that had now begun to form on Charlie's face.

It was a few days to go to the Quidditch World Cup final between Ireland and Bulgaria on Monday night, and Hermione had confirmed her presence at the Burrow for the remainder of the holidays starting on Sunday afternoon.

The discussions at the dinner table amongst the Weasley kids now consisted primarily of the Quidditch matches which had led to the culmination in the meeting of the two teams in the final.

Harry listened with half an ear to the occasional stories about Mr. Weasley's dealings at the Ministry or to the rather persistent blabbering of Percy about his _important _work on the reports for standardizing cauldron bottoms, or shared the exasperated looks on everyone's faces at Percy's constant attempts to manoeuvre the conversation away from the Quidditch final towards the 'Top-Secret' upcoming event his department at the Ministry was so involved in arranging. He had dropped enough hints by now, for even Harry to catch on, that he wanted nothing more than the youngsters to take the bait and ask him about it so that he could boast his involvement in such an important event.

Bill and Charlie were more amused than annoyed at Percy's behavior and as such made subtle attempts to divert his attempts by regaling stories about their adventures with the tombs and treasures, goblins, dragons and foreign wizards. This would leave Percy all the more pouting and petulant. Harry had become quite used to tune out the semi-heated discussions regarding the twins' future career plans between the twins and their parents, especially Molly Weasley, who would keep on extolling to them about the importance of a respectable career at the Ministry and bemoan their lack of ambition. The expressions at the twins' faces at being subject to her tirade left him, Ron and Ginny snickering while the twins glowered at each of them in turn for their impudence.  
If all else failed, Mrs. Weasley's continuous efforts to convince Bill to cut his hair shorter to a more respectable length, and his equally determined efforts to ward her off, never failed to amuse them to no end.

However, even among these fun-filled moments, Harry didn't fail to pick up on the slight change in behaviour by the eldest two Weasley kids towards him, since a few days back. They both, and Charlie in particular, had become a bit aloof to him and he couldn't help but think they were waiting for something in particular to pass their judgment on him. He would then shake off these vibes and resume his conversations with Ginny and Ron about the upcoming school year, or he and Ron would discuss the impending arrival of Hermione and warn Ginny about some peculiarities about her new roommate for a fortnight. Sometimes they would share interesting and funny incidents from their past lives and Harry would often wonder how his life would have turned out had Voldemort not destroyed his family. All in all, he was feeling very happy, and they were eagerly awaiting Hermione's arrival. It left them with the feeling that the night of the Quidditch final couldn't come sooner for them.

Hermione finally joined them on Sunday afternoon, when Mr. Weasley picked her up at the Grangers. It was the first time she had come to stay at Ron's place and was looking very excited about visiting a pure wizarding household. Once the introductions were over, they took her on a tour of the house and the property where Hermione bombarded them with questions and exclamations and squeals and scowls. They settled down by the pond where she asked them about their holidays and immediately launched into an explanation in great detail about her own trip to Spain with her parents. After she had stopped finally to catch a breath, it was Ron's turn now and he readily began describing to her about their activities in the past two weeks.

Ginny, Harry saw, was turning red with the effort to keep from bursting with laughter at their antics, and it was only with great self restraint that they both managed to avoid their mirth from showing. Harry, who was quite used to this type of behaviour from his two best friends, would only add a comment or two when required for clarification and Ginny taking the cue from Harry did the same.

After some inane chattering and more casual conversations, Hermione looked at Harry with an intense expression, as if she was keen to ask him something, but didn't quite know how to do that without causing an awkward situation. Harry guessed she must be thinking about Sirius, and after looking around for a bit to make sure no one would hear them, told them about the two letters he had got from Sirius. Instantly, Hermione looked at him as if he was an idiot and replied, "I don't know what you are talking about, Harry!" She looked at Ginny while saying this and immediately looked away again at him with an accusing expression. Ron seemed to have caught on what she was on about, and looking at the expressions on Ginny's face, knew that Harry had told her about last year.

"You told her, didn't you?" he asked quietly.

"Well, yeah", Harry paused for a moment, and then added, "Is there any problem?"

Hermione looked at him warily and then exchanged a look with Ron before asking him, "You trust her with Sirius' freedom then?"

Ginny rose angrily and started towards the Burrow, when Harry caught her wrist.

"Don't go Gin, she didn't mean it thatway. Please sit down?" he pleaded looking into her eyes. Ginny's look softened at that and she sat next to him, their shoulders touching, Harry now holding her hand instead of her wrist.

"Hermione, are you saying I would be careless with the safety and the life of my own Godfather?" Harry's voice was dangerously low and Hermione flinched at the way he looked at her, averting her eyes to the ground.

"I'm sorry Harry, and to you too, Ginny", her voice hitched a little while speaking,"I should have known you would trust her completely to even speak about Sirius in front of her."

Ron, in the mean while was looking a bit strangely at Harry with his brows furrowed and then would cast a look at Ginny, repeating the pattern. Harry could tell he was doing some serious thinking right then and would only talk about it to him when he was ready with his conclusions.

Meanwhile, Ginny had told Hermione it was okay and she shouldn't worry about it anymore, and Harry took the opportunity to finish telling them what he had started to, before he was interrupted.

When he didn't mention about the dream he had had when his scar hurt, Ginny looked at him questioningly, but he shook his head at her and she nodded understandingly.

For her part, Hermione was watching them both closely and saw the way Harry and Ginny were interacting with each other. It was odd to see Harry having silent conversations with any one other than her or Ron, and she was not sure if they were that common between the three of them in the fist place.

It was obvious Harry was not telling her something, meaning he had not told Ron either. But from the looks of it, he had told Ginny!

It looked like Harry and Ginny had become quite good friends in the past two weeks for this level of understanding and comfort level between the two.

Frankly speaking, she was a bit puzzled at this aberration from what she had chalked out as normal Harry behavior.

She changed the topic then, but decided to keep watching and think over this new development later when she could relax.

Ron stood up abruptly after a while and told them he was getting hungry and they all decided to return to the kitchen to help with setting the dinner tables in the garden outside.

Walking back to the Burrow, Harry was lost in his own dark thoughts and if he was not currently being guided by Ginny, he would surely have stumbled a couple of times already. To be frank, he was more than a little angry with Hermione for even suggesting what she had hinted back there. And Ron had gone totally silent after asking him that one question. Surely it was not so difficult for them to accept his friendship with Ginny? Did they really think she was an idiot to go babbling to anyone about a sensitive matter like this? Must have been a shock for them, he thought. Yes, that must be it. Maybe he should just forget about it.  
After all, Hermione was pretty logical most of the time. Though Ron had not said much, he decided to cross that bridge when he came to it.  
But, this seed of doubt had been enough for him to stop when he was about to mention about his dream and scar. He didn't want to worry them unnecessarily, and frankly speaking he didn't think they were ready to hear about it anyways.  
Ginny had noticed though and looked at him at the same time. She understood what he was trying to say to her too, without having to put it in words to her. He looked to his right where she was walking by his side, and found her chocolate brown eyes gazing into his with a worried frown. He smiled brightly at her and squeezed her hand briefly and let it go. She too smiled back at him haltingly and he noticed they had reached the backyard where Bill and Charlie were levitating out two tables through the kitchen back door.

They hurried inside to see what help they could be and were outside of the kitchen very quickly, with the girls carrying the plates while he and Ron gathered the cutlery and scurried outside, away from Mrs. Weasley who seemed to be in a rather bad mood and was mumbling about the twins under her breath.

As they headed out the back door into the yard, they heard a very loud crashing noise from the other side of the house. The source of the commotion was revealed as they entered the garden. It looked like Bill and Charlie were putting on a 'Table-Fight' show for the sake of Hermione who had arrived today. They both had their wands out and were making two battered old tables fly high above the lawn, smashing into each other, each attempting to knock the other's out of the air. Fred and George were cheering, Ginny was laughing, and Hermione was hovering near the hedge, apparently torn between amusement and anxiety. Bill's table caught Charlie's with a huge bang and knocked one of its legs off. There was a clatter from overhead, and they all looked up to see Percy's head poking out of a window on the second floor.

"Will you keep it down?!" he bellowed.

"Sorry, Perce," said Bill, grinning. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," said Percy peevishly, and he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie directed the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then, with a flick of his wand, Bill reattached the table leg and conjured tablecloths from nowhere.

The conversation at the dinner was rather subdued as Mrs. Weasley was still glowering at the twins from time to time, but they were carrying on with their conversation with Charlie with nonchalance. Hermione didn't know what would have caused the genial Mrs. Weasley to be so unlike her at the meal table, and the other three took turns in whispering to her about the twins' attempts at making their own joke products and the Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes. When she heard about their dismal O.W.L scores, she looked scandalized and was about to say something to the twins, when Ginny kicked her shin from under the table, while Harry sternly told her to drop it with a look. Abashed, she nodded at both of them and continued her dinner.

After the dinner was over, Mrs. Weasley asked them all head up to bed as they had to get up next day at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Taking Hermione's school-list, she added it to the list of five others and sent them off to bed.


	3. The Quidditch World Cup

_Disclaimer : Not mine, thanks to JKR for allowing us to indulge in our favourite pastime...  
_

**CHAPTER THREE **

**The Quidditch World Cup**

Harry woke up next morning at the crack of dawn, to the insistent shaking of Mrs. Weasley. He was still feeling sleepy while nursing his morning tea at the kitchen table, where the four of them sat talking with Mr. Weasley. He greeted the girls once they came downstairs cheerily, but found the grumpy expression on Ginny's face particularly funny. Apparently, she too was not much of a morning person, like most other Weasleys.

A little while later, they were all trudging their way towards Stoatshead Hill, a large black hill beyond the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, where there portkey for the World Cup lay. Bill, Charlie and Percy were still at the Burrow since they were apparating to the match and didn't have to join the seven of them so early. Harry had hung back a little to talk to Ginny. Her breath seemed to be coming in short gasps, and Harry couldn't help tease her a little about her lack of enthusiasm for the World Cup match. Ginny just huffed at him and kept ignoring him, till he gave up and they finally reached the top of the small hill. Even Harry found himself short of breath, but everyone else seemed to have fared much worse than him.

Well, you couldn't really tell with the twins, since they were still glowering from the incident that had happened before leaving, when Mrs. Weasley had caught them in their attempt to smuggle some of their products at the match. Mrs. Weasley had laid it upon them in spectacular fashion, and Harry knew he wouldn't want to be in the same room if that happened again, even if someone paid to do so.

They had been searching for the portkey only for a couple of minutes, when a certain Amos Diggory called them over from the other side of the hilltop. He was holding a moldy-looking old boot in one of his hands. This must be the portkey Harry thought. Standing tall next to him was Cedric Diggory, the seventh year handsome Hupplepuff, who was Captain and Seeker of the Hupplepuff House Quidditch team at Hogwarts.

Mr. Weasley introduced them all to Amos Diggory, who worked at the Ministry too, for the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. When it came to Harry, he was not disappointed by the reaction he received from Mr. Diggory at his name. But apparently, his scar was not the only reason why Mr. Diggory had heard of him. Looked like, Cedric had told his parents all about the match from last year where he had beaten Harry to the snitch.  
Amos Diggory seemed exceptionally proud of his son for his achievement particularly since it was against _'The Harry Potter'_ and didn't mind rubbing it in the face of everyone present.

Cedric though, for his part looked embarrassed at the turn the topic had taken.

He tried to protest, "I told you Dad, it was an accident…Harry fell off his broom."  
But Amos cut him off, "But you didn't fall of your broom, did you? You are so modest, Ced, always the gentleman! But the best man won, even Harry would say the same wouldn't you, Harry? After all…"  
The twins were now scowling and Harry had gone rigid at the vivid remembrance of the events that had transpired when the Dementors had invaded the pitch during the match last year, causing him a shiver that had nothing to do with the chill that permeated the surrounding air in the still dark sky.

Before Amos Diggory could finish what he was saying however, Ginny cut in furiously, "Of course, Cedric would stay on the broom. Wasn't like he had had _his_ parents murdered when he was just a baby, did he? Why would he have any reason to have such bad memories when facing a hundred Dementors, that would make staying conscious while hundred feet in the air a priority for you, eh? Should be happy and grateful that he had his parents for all his life to provide him with such a sheltered life, shouldn't he?"

Ginny was on a roll and on her way towards building quite the temper, but Mr. Weasley found his voice at that moment and decided to come out of his shock induced stupor, with a "That's enough, Ginny!".

He was not alone in watching the indignant red-head slack-jawed; Hermione and Ron were looking at her wide-eyed, the twins were gleeful and the Diggorys were mortified and very pale. Harry on the other hand was looking anywhere but at the Diggorys and just to escape the awkward situation, asked Mr. Weasley how much time they had to wait still until the portkey activated. It was a couple of minutes later that they were all touching the old boot with a finger each, when it activated and deposited them at the deserted misty moor where the World Cup match was being held later in the evening. After getting up, Harry quickly separated himself from the group to gather his bearings; it looked like the wizarding ways of travels would never sit with him - brooms would always be his preferred choice.

Ginny who was still fuming, came over to him and put a hand on his shoulder before asking, "Are you okay?"

He looked into her warm brown eyes, which crinkled with anger and concern at the same time. Wondering how she could manage that, he answered, "Yeah, I don't like Floo much, and the Portkeys seem to go the same way."  
Then he whispered so only she could hear, "Thanks for sticking up for me back there. Though you didn't have to do it so vehemently. I'm sure Mr. Diggory must be still quaking with fear."

"Prat! I know you would do the same for me; or any of your friends really. Come on, let's follow everyone, else we will be lost in this mist."

With that they set off behind the remaining Weasleys and Hermione towards their campsite, eager to put the morning behind them and enjoy the rest of the day to their fullest.

Twenty minutes later, the group had reached the small stone cottage where Mr. Roberts, their campsite manger, was standing in the doorway. After paying him for the night and one Obliviation later, they walked towards the edge of the wood at the top of the field, passing through long rows of tents. Mr. Weasley looked very excited at the idea of doing things the Muggle way and Harry and Hermione found themselves roped in to help him set up the two tents the Muggle way, by hand. Even though it took quite long, and Mr. Weasley was more hindrance than help, Harry couldn't find it in him to begrudge Mr. Weasley's child-like exuberance; he always found Mr. Weasley's fascination about Muggles very endearing. The inside of the tent was a totally different matter altogether though. Harry always felt he would never get used to the whole lot of difference Magic made in their lives, when it came to sorting out the basic necessities and applying creature comforts for a host of things that would be a rather cumbersome and tedious task otherwise.

Soon Mr. Weasley had sent Harry, Ron and Hermione off to bring some water while the rest of them went on to collect some wood for a fire. They met Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas on their way through the tents, towards the tap in the corner of the field.

On their way back, they saw many more familiar faces from Hogwarts along with their families. Oliver Wood, who had just left Hogwarts to join the Puddlemere United reserve team, Ernie Macmillan their fellow Hupplepuff fourth year; and a little farther they saw Cho Chang, Ravenclaw's Seeker who waved and smiled at Harry. With a jolt, Harry came to a stop and slopped quite some water down, before absently waving back. As they moved on, Harry realized that this was one pretty girl from Hogwarts, whom he had noticed last year and who had made his head turn twice for the first time. He could even go ahead and call her his first crush, but as he stretched his memory he realized one more thing; he had not thought about her even once since school had ended for the summer, and most definitely not since he had come to stay at the Burrow. He continued his introspection as to what this meant for him personally and missed the smirking or contemplative looks sent his way by Ron and Hermione, as they finally got back to the Weasley's tents.

Once they got the fire lit, with Hermione's help of course, they waited for about an hour to start cooking their meal of eggs and sausages when Bill, Charlie and Percy joined them.Halfway through their morning meal, they were met by Ludo Bagman, Head of Magical Games and Sports, whose department was responsible for handling the organization of the day's events. It was because of him that Mr. Weasley was able to get such prime tickets to the top box in the VIP arena. After introductions were over and Bagman took bets from the twins, Mr. Weasley and he engaged in some work related chat, when they were joined by yet another wizard Barty Crouch. The difference between Bagman and Crouch was there to see for all – where Bagman was dressed in his Wisbourne Wasps robes completely disregarding the Anti-Muggle security, Crouch came across as an impeccably dressed Muggle banker in a crisp suit and tie, who paid excruciating attention to details. Where Ludo Bagman appeared to be a genial and good natured fellow, Barty Crouch had a stiff and uptight countenance. Perfect boss for Perfect Percy, Harry thought with a snigger. The Weasley children looked pretty unimpressed with the conversation being carried out between the three Ministry wizards, however Hermione and Harry both were hanging on to every word being said, with unbridled curiosity and eagerness.

As dusk fell and the darkness increased, the excitement and anticipation was apparent everywhere. The Ministry had long ago stopped bothering about controlling the magical displays by the public, who were blatantly using their wands everywhere by then. They found various Salesmen selling various knick knacks and merchandise and each bought green rosettes to show that they were supporting Ireland. Ron also bought a hat with a dancing shamrock along with a figurine of the Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum while Hermione went looking for the programs.

Harry, who had been on a look-out for a nice gift on account of Ginny's birthday, suddenly caught sight of a cart piled high with brass binoculars, except that they all had weird knobs and dials on them.

"What are they?" he asked the Saleswizard.

"Omnioculars," said the saleswizard eagerly. "You can replay action… slow everything down… and they flash up a play-by- play breakdown if you need it. Ten galleons each, it's a bargain…"

Harry looked at Ron, who was eyeing the Omnioculars with a forlorn expression since he had used up all of his money, and was about to suggest he buy them all a pair each. But Ron looked up at him at the same moment and guessing what he was about to say nixed the idea instantly.

"NO!" he said, "Don't bother." Harry opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it abruptly. Making up his mind, he shrugged and said, "Fine." Turning to the saleswizard he said, "Give me two pairs." Hermione came back from where she was buying programs and they made their way back to the tents, where they met up with the remaining Weasleys all of whom were now adorning green rosettes and an Irish flag.

"Ginny!" he called out to her smiling, "Here's your birthday present as I'd promised earlier."

Ginny, who looked clearly uncomfortable with such an expensive gift, accepted it anyways with a muttered, "Thanks Harry, you really shouldn't have…"

Mr. Weasley meanwhile admonished Harry in a mild tone about spending ten galleons on a birthday gift, "You should be thrifty with your money, Harry! Shouldn't go about spending it carelessly."

Harry saw the eldest Weasleys pursing their lips while Ron looked on enviously at Ginny, his ears had already gone red at the tips, but no one said anything else and Harry let the matter drop.

At the signal for the match to begin, they all hurried towards the stadium excitedly, along with scores of other wizards and witches. After a small climb, the Weasley party found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts. About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs stood in two rows here, and Harry, filing into the front seats with the Weasleys, looked down upon an awe-inspiring scene of wizarding conglomeration of about a hundred thousand. He was seated between Ginny to his right and Ron and Hermione to his left. Mr. Weasley and the remaining Weasleys sat further along the seats next to Ginny. The feverish excitement had now gripped everybody and he sat talking with Ginny about this and that, occasionally pointing to something from the crowd below that caught their fancy through the Omnioculars. Mr. Weasley kept greeting the wizards and witches who gradually filled the Top Box, whereas Ron and Hermione were conversing in low and whispered tones; apparently, Hermione was trying to explain something to Ron and seemed quite exasperated with him by then. Harry noticed a house-elf sitting behind him in the back row, which they learnt belonged to Barty Crouch and was saving him a seat. It was difficult not to sympathize with the wretched creature and its ideas of existence and sustenance, but it was soon put out of his mind as Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, came along a little while later with the Bulgarian Minister of Magic.

Harry saw Percy shooting him jealous looks when Fudge greeted Harry in a fatherly fashion, as if they were old friends. Harry was by now pretty embarrassed by the Minister's showing him off to the Bulgarian contingent as if he were some kind of a trophy for England. More to avoid further awkwardness on his part, he nudged Ginny and pointed her to look at Percy, who was still glowering a bit at him. Ginny, for her part was trying to contain her mirth and amusement at Harry's discomfiture, and just shook her head and said, "Ignore him Harry. He's a git! It's not like you asked for anything of this…"

A bit mollified at this, he was about to say something to the Minister, only to be interrupted for yet another round of introductions, for at that moment, none other than Lucius Malfoy, along with his wife – Narcissa Malfoy and their son, Draco Malfoy had entered the box, edging towards the three remaining seats directly behind Mr. Weasley.

Harry felt Ginny stiffen next to him and a very cold look crossed her features. He had never seen that expression on her face before; the warm chocolate brown in her eyes had been replaced by a shade of brown so dark, it appeared almost black at a closer glance. He could understand the visible chill in her eyes and was sure the Malfoys reminded her of her first year and the Chamber incident, which was solely the responsibility of the eldest Malfoy. The sudden tension in the air was apparent to all except Fudge, who continued his blabbering uninterrupted; the loathing and contempt between the two parties was mutual and Harry bemoaned his luck at being reminded of such unpleasantness from his Hogwarts life on such a momentous and joyous occasion.

Soon Ludo Bagman had joined them in the box, and he started the commentating for the final of the four hundred and twenty second Quidditch World Cup. The match was to be preceded by a display from the national team mascots, and the Bulgarians being the visitors went first. When the Bulgarian National Team Mascots entered the pitch, Mr. Weasley exclaimed with a muttered oath, "Veela!"

Harry was about to ask him what they were, when he saw for himself some of the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his life, gliding out onto the field. It was difficult for him to fathom how these ethereal beings were even human, when the music started and he stopped thinking about anything at all.

As the veela started dancing, he felt himself slipping into an almost trance like state, immersed in the bliss of absolute wonder and contentment. But soon, it didn't seem enough and he felt compelled to do something impressive like jumping off the railing of the box. He had stood up to go ahead and do it anyways, even though it did not seem to be a good enough choice, when a sudden waft of a sweet flowery scent permeated his senses and bought him out of his trance. Ginny, who had gripped his shoulder so hard there might be nail marks in his flesh, was looking at him alarmed and had gone a little pale. He shook his head a bit to clear off the dizziness he still felt, and tried to smile at her reassuringly, but was sure it came across as more of a grimace. He looked up at Mr. Weasley on her other side, who along with Bill, Charlie and Percy had their fingers in their ears and were looking quite amused and entertained by the reactions of the twins to the veela. The expression on Mr. Weasley's face left Harry in no doubt as to where the twins got their mischievous streak from, and he was quite sure that Arthur Weasley had purposely not informed them about the effect Veela had on the male population. Taking his cue from them, he quickly put two fingers in his ears, and turned to his left to see Hermione trying to stop Ron from doing something equally stupid or foolhardy, as he was about to just a few moments ago. The music stopped soon after that, but the whole stadium was filled with angry yells from half the crowd, who did not appreciate the veela stopping their amazing display of bewitchment and leaving.

But at the next moment, Bagman had announced the arrival of the Irish National Team Mascots, The Leprechauns, who put on a brilliant display that looked like fireworks interspersed with glitter and multi-colored lights of rainbow. Gold coins were raining down into the crowd left, right and center and minor scuffles broke out amongst pockets of the crowd, where people were trying their most to rummage and retrieve as much of the gold as they could.

The teams then entered the pitch to a tumultuous applause from the crowd, and the match had started in earnest. Harry was soon caught up in the excitement of the game, and forgot all about his earlier lack of control at the display of Veela Magic. The Irish were scoring with impunity showing their superb class and leading the score quite easily.

With each goal scored by the Irish players, their mascots celebrated by creating various shapes and formations and the crowd of Irish supporters went into a wild frenzy. At the first goal scored by the Bulgarians however, Mr. Weasley roared at them to put their fingers in their ears, and Harry grumbled good-naturedly at him about how a little warning earlier on could have saved everyone the embarrassment.

"Ah! But Harry m'boy, how would you have otherwise known the wisdom to keep one's wits about oneself, when faced with deceptive and treacherous beauty?" he replied mysteriously.

Harry just shrugged at that and turned his attention back to the game as he heard a collective gasp from the crowd and a shriek closer next to him from Ginny, who had once again gripped his arm so hard it hurt. The two seekers, Krum and Lynch, were plummeting towards the ground at a break-neck speed, with Krum in the lead and it looked as if finally the snitch had been spotted. Harry focused his Omnioculars on the Bulgarian seeker, but sensed immediately that something was off from the way Krum turned ever so slightly to see Lynch following him desperately, but apparently caught sight of the snitch as soon as he turned back and focused again.

"He's faking it!" Harry had gasped, and no sooner were those words out of his mouth, than Krum had pulled out of the dive at the last moment, avoiding the certain crash otherwise.

The Irish seeker had not been as lucky however, and when he hit the ground with a dull thud, the sound reverberated through the stadium as if the entire crowd had been silenced with a mass _Silencio_. Ginny was caught between looking horror-struck at the fate of Lynch and wanting to ask Harry as to how he had known Krum was feinting! Once the time-out was over and the mediwizards had patched the Irish seeker enough to get him back into the air, he began explaining Ginny quite enthusiastically the finer details of the earlier move. The game was progressing at a fast and furious pace now and the Bulgarian beaters were getting vicious and desperate in their attempts to stop the Irish goal scoring machines. Twice they committed blatant fouls and Ireland was awarded penalties accordingly. The score had reached a hundred and sixty to ten in favor of Ireland and the referee had even tried to remove the Bulgarian mascots from the pitch, when they had caused him to make a fool of himself in front of everyone. The Leprechauns in the meanwhile were leaving no stone unturned in their attempts to vex and annoy their counterparts on the other side of the field. The Veela were quite irritated by then and when the Leprechauns gathered together in the air to make a spectacularly rude sign with a giant hand, it was the last straw for them and they lost control.

Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Watching through his Omnioculars, Harry saw that they didn't look remotely beautiful now. On the contrary, their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders -

"And that, boys," yelled Mr. Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below, "is why you should never go for looks alone!"

For some reason, that comment stuck in Harry's mind and as he pondered over it, he realized that Mr. Weasley was quite good at imparting random nuggets of wisdom to them, as the situation beckoned.

'Well, he _has_ raised seven children quite admirably so far, hasn't he?" Harry thought to himself as his respect for Mr. Weasley went up another notch.

But soon he was brought out of his musings and was concentrating at the match, when he heard Ron groan about Krum's broken nose. He had seen Lynch go into a dive out of the corner of his eye and Krum, who had seen it too, followed him.

The end result was 160-170 in favor of Ireland, for Krum had actually managed to get to the snitch before Lynch and ended the game, with Bulgaria losing by ten points.

The entire crowd was left gawking at the scoreboard for a moment or two and then Bagman had shouted, "IRELAND WINS!" and the hoard of Irish supporters had started a cheer so massive, the whole stadium shook with the noise they were making.

At last the teams were introduced to both the Ministers and the Cup was awarded, and the Weasleys along with Harry and Hermione followed the raucous crowds out of the stadium as they made their way back towards their tents, delirious with the final outcome of the match. Broad grins seemed to be permanently etched on everybody's face and there was good natured arguing all around about different tactics and plays and fouls from the match. They had all sat down around the tiny tables discussing about the game and giving each other verbal replays and Harry felt that nothing could rob him off the happiness he was feeling at the moment. He wanted to etch this memory in his mind forever, but was brought out of his reverie suddenly when Ginny had slumped onto his shoulder sleepily, spilling her mug of cocoa on the ground.

They finally decided to get up at that and went off to sleep into their respective bunks, each happily slipping into pleasant dreams about Quidditch and flying fantasies of their own.

Harry felt that he had barely slept a wink, when he was roused awake by Mr. Weasley's shouting. He could tell something was wrong as he realized the noises coming from outside the tent were no more those of the Irish fans cheering or singing; rather they sounded more like people running around frantically due to confusion and panic.

He did quickly as he was told by Mr. Weasley, joining Ron and the twins outside and came across a truly horrific sight; hordes of people were running helter-skelter away from a bunch of burning tents and screams of frightened children filled the air while worried mothers were desperately trying to take them away to safety.

A mass of closely knit wizards wearing hooded cloaks and white masks covering their faces were steadily making their way through the tents, some of them pausing occasionally to blast a tent or two out of their way or set fires to random ones, adding to the jeers and shouts and drunken yells of the crowd following them. Harry was totally confused by now and was about to ask Mr. Weasley what was going on when he saw why exactly the approaching crowd of wizards had their wands pointed in the air. White hot rage burned through him at the sight of their campsite manager's family being suspended about fifty feet above them in the air. The smallest child was rotating at a dizzy speed while their mother was hung upside down, trying to maintain her decency. Mr. Roberts and his other child were twisted in such a manner that was not otherwise possible except for magic. The Muggle family was being tortured and tormented right in front of scores of Ministry officials, and all they were doing was following the crowd with the hopes that somehow they would be able to catch the poor muggles if they fell. Harry wished for a wild moment or two that he knew of the spell Peter Pettrigrew had used thirteen years back, so that he could blast apart the demented maniacs at the center of the crowd limb from limb. He was about to whip his wand out and do something rash, underage magic be damned, when Mr. Weasley came from behind them along with Ginny, Hermione and the eldest three Weasley children.

He immediately ordered the youngsters to get into the woods and sprinted towards the oncoming marchers along with Bill, Charlie and Percy.The six of them found themselves pressed into the throngs of crowds escaping into the dark woods away from the trouble, unable to see what was happening around them in the dark. Ron had fallen over with a yelp of pain and Harry bumped into Hermione, who had stopped and lit her wand with a quick _Lumos_. Harry gaped at her for a few seconds and was about to comment on her use of magic in the summer, when he heard the very unpleasant and unwelcome drawl of Draco Malfoy. Malfoy stood at the side alone, calm and collected, totally relaxed and unconcerned with nary a flicker of worry marring his aristocratic features and started to gloat and bait them as usual. Harry and Ron were about to make a permanent dent to his jaw, but Hermione restrained them and urged them to ignore Malfoy and carry on. Trying to ignore Malfoy's sniggering insults, they turned away from him and went further into the woods. When they realized that Ginny and the twins were not with them, Ron pulled out his wand and lit it, peering into the crowd and trying to spot their lost companions. Harry reached into the pocket of his jacket to do the same, but his wand wasn't there and realized he had somehow lost his wand too.

They kept an eye out for the twins and Ginny, but all they encountered were a few of Beauxbatons students and Winky, the house-elf scurrying away awkwardly into the trees. As they reached a clearing, they saw three tall and beautiful veela, surrounded by a bunch of young wizards, each making ridiculously absurd and preposterous claims about something or the other trying to impress them. Stan Shunpike, the pimply faced conductor from the Knight Bus, even went so far as to boast his claim to become the youngest Minister of Magic. Reminded vividly of his earlier experience with Veela Magic, Harry dearly wanted to avoid being anywhere near them and had to drag Ron away from the scene when he started yelling out his claims of inventing broomsticks that reached Jupiter.

They had reached the heart of the woods and stood completely alone now, giving them time to catch a breather. Harry suddenly remembered, they were still missing the other three and started fretting about the condition Ginny and the twins might be in. He knew he shouldn't be worrying much, since the twins were two years older than him, knew more magic than he and could definitely take care of themselves as well as Ginny better than he could. But he couldn't help the dread that had filled his stomach and started pacing about subconsciously. Ron and Hermione were talking in low voices and Harry had just turned to ask Ron if he had any means to contact the others, when he heard a crack of a twig snapping under someone's feet from behind him. All three heads turned as one towards the source of the noise, but the footsteps of whoever was approaching them came to a sudden halt. Tension hung heavily in the air as the three waited with bated breaths for the person or creature to come out in the open, but all that they heard was a deep and sharp voice shouting – "MORSMORDRE!" and a colossal green skull, complete with a serpent protruding from its mouth, rose higher and higher above the woods and illuminated the entire area like a grisly neon sign.

Harry was quite glad, the drama that followed the conjuring of the Dark Mark, was finally over and all he could think about as they made their way out of the woods back to their tents, was the safety of the others. Mr. Weasley had not had the time to confirm if Ginny and the twins had got back safely either and they increased their pace to reach their destination faster. Hermione meanwhile, was ranting furiously about the way the Ministry wizards, especially Mr. Diggory and Mr. Crouch, had treated the house-elf Winky back at the scene of crime.

Harry was bemused and could not understand how at a time like this, she was more worried about the unjust and unfair treatment of the house-elf, when they didn't even know if the others were okay or not.  
He interrupted her quite forcefully as she rounded on Ron for one of his blasé comment, "Hermione, we all agree that they way Winky was treated back there was despicable and disgusting. And the treatment meted out the house-elves by wizards in general, is nothing but unjust and unfair. But now is NOT the time to discuss house elf rights! Aren't you even a little worried about how the others had fared? Bill, Charlie and Percy were out fighting by the looks of it and we don't have any idea what has happened to Ginny and the twins, neither does Mr. Weasley. So, forgive me if I am more concerned about my friends, and Mr. Weasley his family, rather than a house-elf that has been freed by her unconcerned and cold-hearted master!", he finished a tad viciously.

Hermione looked stricken for a few moments, but soon her indignation returned and she was about to retort, but Harry had turned away from the glare she directed at him. Ignoring Ron who now gaped at him, he sped ahead of them as they reached the edge of the woods. A lot of frightened witches and wizards were standing there huddled together waiting for some news regarding the Dark Mark's appearance and held up Mr. Weasley with their questions. Harry, however, had rushed forward to the tents where he saw Charlie poking his head out. As he neared the tent, Charlie exclaimed, "There you are! Where are the others?"

"They will be along shortly; everyone is okay, what about you? Did Ginny and the twins return safely?"

As soon as he saw Charlie nod, he rushed forward into the tent without waiting for an answer to see for himself.

Bill and Percy looked slightly hurt and bloodied, but nothing more serious. And to his immense relief he saw Ginny seated between Fred and George, all of them unhurt but quite pale and shaken. The tight knot in his stomach began to lessen at the sight of everyone being fine, and he approached the three of them asking, "Ginny, are you…you guys are okay? We didn't even realize when we got separated from the three of you! I…we were all so worried!"

Fred got up from his seat and placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, "We were worried too when we couldn't find you three. Ginny here was about to double back, coming to search for you. But then the three of you have been in enough scrapes together for the past three years and managed quite well, so we figured you'd be fine on your own. Then the Dark Mark came up and it was all chaos and panic all around us. Blimey! I've never seen people run like headless chickens in such a way before, mate!"

"That's because you have never had the misfortune to realize fully the terror that sign inspired in the hearts of wizards and witches during You-Know-Who's reign, Fred."

Mr. Weasley, Ron and Hermione had finally joined them and he continued, "It was terrible, coming home dreading if it was your turn to see the Dark Mark hovering above your house, knowing there would be no one left alive of your family inside…"

An uneasy silence fell over them for a couple of moments before Bill asked them what had happened with the person who conjured the Dark Mark. Mr. Weasley started to explain the events from before, along with the help of Ron and Hermione, who were still giving him disapproving looks. Harry had sat down in the seat Fred had vacated and just listened to the others speaking. He didn't feel much like contributing to the conversation, as he sat there brooding about the significance of the reappearance of the Dark Mark and the Death Eaters after thirteen years. He wondered if this was somehow tied in with the dream he had had two weeks earlier, where he saw Voldemort and Pettigrew plotting about ways to murder him.

He looked up at Ginny when he felt her left hand cover his right wrist and squeeze it reassuringly and gave her a slight smile, which she returned.

It was nearly three in the morning, when Mr. Weasley made them go back to their respective bunks to sleep, as they would be taking an early Portkey back home, the next day. As Harry lay on his bunk trying to sleep, he thought about the letter he had written to Sirius about ten days back and wondered when he would be getting his reply. As he started to feel drowsy, he wished this was all just a dream, a nightmare and none of this had really happened to ruin his fun-filled day at the World Cup. Mentally he scoffed and admonished himself for thinking that his ill-fated luck would ever let him have a completely carefree day with no worries. With that miserable and depressing thought plaguing his mind, Harry finally drifted off into a fitful sleep that wasn't at all restful.

_**AN: **I am really sorry this chapter's been delayed by a week more than I'd said it would take for a new one, but as I had posted on my author profile, I couldn't help it._

_My laptop's gone bust and I had to use my friends' laptop for coming up with this one. As a result, you may find a loss of continuity at one or two places, since I couldn't hog his laptop all the time. All I can say is I've got amazing roomies, but then there understanding only gets me so far… ;)_

_About this chapter, not much dialogue in it and I'm sure many of you won't be happy with it as it feels like a rehash of what JKR has written. But in case you notice the title of the story and its summary, you will realize where I'm trying to go with this plot._

_I was thinking about the Harry Potter series one day after a second read of the Deathly Hallows and JKR's interviews post release of the seventh book, when I was struck by this idea. It involved one or two changes, seemingly inconsequential at the time, but having a far-reaching effect on the events that follow. This story tries to follow the 'Cause and Effect' relationship, where the main events that happen in the canon will still happen as they would. Only the reactions of the characters and the circumstances which they face will change accordingly. Right now, it is a gradual process and I've made only one major change from JKR's Harry by making him slightly more thoughtful and observant than the original fourteen year old.  
_

_Remember, the settings will remain the same, but the consequences will not. There will be major changes once the Domino Effect comes into play anyways._

_Btw, if anyone had any doubts as to which character I mentioned in the P.S earlier, this chapter should clear it up. It's Hermione Granger, our favorite know-it-all!  
I need the opinion of someone who neither dislikes Hermione (as I do sometimes), nor is she their favorite character.  
An objective view is hard to come by, and I would really appreciate it if someone lends me a helping hand._

_Cheers,  
SRG_


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